LIP SERVICE

Ken Lipshez, a member of the CT High School Coaches Hall of Fame, has been covering local sports in central Connecticut since 1992. He is also past president and treasurer of the CT Sports Writers' Alliance, which has staged the prestigious Gold Key Dinner annually since 1939 (see ctsportswriters.org). Ken worked both as an administrator (1981-88) and a beat reporter for Eastern League baseball (1996-2010). Aside from sports, his passions include American history, classic movies (pre-1970), the Grateful Dead and 1960s TV shows, particularly westerns.

Saturday, April 27, 2013

I have heard and generally agreed
with the undercurrent of protests asserted by public high school coaches and
fans about what they perceive as the unfair advantages that “schools without
borders” possess, primarily in basketball.

For the purpose of simplifying that
statement without accusing anyone of unethical practices, we’re talking about
the decades-old concept of parochial schools, and more recently magnet schools,
luring students based on athletic merit.

It’s like the old ethnic jokes once
deemed funny but now relegated to back alleys. The words are uttered in bar
rooms, at water coolers, at dinner tables and in the grandstands at scholastic
games, but rarely in a public forum. Many are tired of Xavier-Middletown
dominating football, Fairfield Prep controlling Division I hockey and a
significant number of these schools tilting the basketball floor, so they vent
… off the record.

The CIAC reacted from in 2006-07
when the CIAC Boys Basketball Committee and tournament director Bob Cecchini
developed an enrollment-based format accented by a “plus factor” to add some
balance.

To implement a point system that
would determine in which class (S through LL) a tournament-bound team would
compete, institutions deemed “schools of choice” by the state (with the
exception of schools commonly defined as tech schools) automatically had their
“enrollment” number doubled.

All member schools would then be
assessed additional numbers based on their tournament success over the previous
four seasons. “Bonus” points would be added on the following basis: 10 for each
semifinal appearance, 25 each time a team reached the final, 50 for winning championships.

Using the 2012-13 boys basketball
tournament as an example, schools with less than 372 male students (using criteria
from the previous school year) were slotted in Class S. Those between 372-505
were grouped in Class M. Class L contained schools with male populations
between 506 and 711, while Class LL was reserved for those above 711.

St. Joseph-Trumbull, despite having
438 male students, was shifted from Class M to LL. First, the 438 was doubled
to 876, then 180 bonus points were tacked on because the Cadets in the previous
four years had made it to the semifinals three times (30 points), finals twice
(50) and won two titles (100). Thus, the recruiting penalty (if I’m permitted
to use that term) gave St. Joseph a sum of 1,056, placing it in the same
stratosphere with much larger cross-town rival Trumbull (enrollment of 1,062).

The CIAC said some schools feel the
procedure falls short of achieving its goal.

Now, a change to the system is on
the horizon that would presumably help further balance CIAC postseason
tournament fields, and since there are rumblings coming from committee members
in other sports (read girls soccer), the proposed formula would be feasible across
the spectrum of team sports.

The CIAC Board of Control on
Thursday approved a proposal from a Board sub-committee for the utilization of
a simpler formula.

Any team from a “school without
borders” that has advanced to the quarterfinals or beyond in each of the
previous three seasons would be bumped up two divisions. Those that have
advanced the quarterfinals or beyond in two of the past three seasons would be
bumped up one division. Those that have advanced to the quarters or beyond just
once over the last three years would not be subject to change.

The proposal will be debated at the
committee level before it becomes official practice. The new system could be
implemented as soon as 2013-14.

“We’re taking it to both basketball
committees,” Cecchini said. “If they go with it, we’ll go with it.”

The following is an example of how
last March’s tournament structure could have been configured differently had
the new system been in place:

The Capital Prep boys basketball
team made it to the quarterfinals or beyond in 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Under the proposed system, the Trailblazers would have had to compete in Class
L this past year. Under the current system, even the factor of doubling the
school’s male population (71) and adding the points for tournament success kept
Capital Prep well within Class S.

Hartford-based Classical Magnet
(160 boys) advanced to the quarters or beyond in 2010-11 and 2011-12, but did
not in 2009-10. Thus, the Gladiators would have been forced up to ‘M’ in the
most recent tournament instead of competing in Class S.

Initially, no school would move up three
divisions, but the possibility exists that a Class S school could eventually be
forced into ‘LL’ if it keeps winning. If/when the three-year evaluation
indicates the team is no longer winning at the same rate, it would be dropped
back down.

The level of dissatisfaction almost
surely boiled over because of winter doings at Capital Prep.

I am not privy to what goes on
there, but to field championship-caliber basketball teams when your boys number
71 and your girls enrollment sits at 121 is not apt to happen by chance. To
make matters worse, the coaching staff of the girls team evidently took
particular delight in burying its foes.

If you think what controversial
football coach Jack Cochran did in terms of score management was something less
than ethical, consider the numbers for which Trailblazer coach Tammy Millsaps
was responsible.

In going 18-0 against state competition,
the Capital Preparatory Magnet School won its games by an average of 46.1
points per game. No typo there, that’s forty-six point one.

They humiliated their overmatched
foes in the Constitution State Conference (largely tech schools) by 44 points
per game, and then really turned it up in the Class S tournament. If you’re not
sitting, please do so in case you get light-headed as your mind processes these
scores:

CP “edged” Old Saybrook in the
first round, 79-21. They must have really had it in for Valley Regional
(100-27) in the quarterfinals. Fourth-seeded Morgan was a 94-36 victim in the
semifinals and No. 3 Thomaston lost 84-55 in the final.

The problems there are multifold.
My first reaction is that the word “integrity” must be considered profane at CP.
My second is, I’m relatively certain the people behind that embarrassing
display were operating within the framework of regulations.

Next, the CSC admitting a shark
like Capital Prep to traverse the same waters as innocuous minnows like Parish
Hill (serving Chaplin, CT), Putnam and the state’s vo-tech schools is either a
humongous oversight or downright cruelty. Losing by 45 points can’t be doing
the young female athletes at those girls much good.

If the girls hoop committee enacts
the new system, Capital Prep will play in Class L next year. That “punishment”
doesn’t come close to fitting the crime, but it will have to do for starters.

When the plans for magnet schools
were taking root during the legislation of the Sheff v. O’Neill education
lawsuit, I knew their presence in Hartford would undermine proud, longstanding
sports traditions at Weaver, Hartford Public and Bulkeley. What I did not
consider is that it could someday undermine the entire state.

Let’s hope both boys and girls committee
members will accept the new system for the good of Connecticut scholastic
basketball. Let’s also hope that the CIAC can continue to develop measures to
further effect balance, but I’m not sure a separate tournament for schools
without borders is feasible at any time in the near future.